News: Paul Reiche and Fred Ford want to continue the story they started when they created Star Control II — The Ur-Quan Masters. «Happy days and jubilation!» «But wait!» «There is something wrong here... something which makes my sheath retract and my talons ooze.» «Please, Captain, we need your help!»

I could remake UQM in its entirety in SCO and I technically would only have to provide the CC license because the code doesn't carry over.

When you say the "code doesn't carry over," it seems to be like you're contradicting what you said earlier. Could a completely new coding platform in fact be used to make an updated version of the game, as long as it is under the same license?

Recreating UQM in SCO would take a lot more footwork in the Creative Commons license than the GPL2 license because we can't edit the SCO code directly, but we can interpret some of UQM's code into the markup language SCO uses for a lot of its components.

I don't care about SCO, I'm strictly focused on UQM and a supposed UQM 2. However, since it seems that SCO plays a role in determining who has the rights to what, I should know more about it.

If all of the art and coding for a..."proxy SC3" was created entirely from scratch, but the designs of the races and ships bared an exact resemblance and the title had some similarity to UQM, is that still acceptable under the GNU license? If anything it would only be intellectual aspect would be carried over, as in the inspiration is derived from UQM, but the actual content of the game wouldn't include anything from original UQM at all, it would all be new.

Perhaps an entirely different title is used like Star Explorer or Star Battle which are cliche, but if it's just a proxy it's not as important.

Like if I were to start inserting SCO ships or aliens into the MegaMod, then Brad would have words to say to me.Actually, probably not even then... I'd have to check with him on that.I guess it might depend on how far I take it.

Anyways, back to the licenses.

Safest way to go about it is if you have a UQM alien in your fan sequel, say, a Supox. Just slap the Creative Commons license in a text file and keep it with the game.

Like if I were to start inserting SCO ships or aliens into the MegaMod, then Brad would have words to say to me.

But see, some of the SCO ships and races probably coincide with some of the UQM ships and races. Stardock supposedly claims they own the rights to everything UQM when they bought content at the bankruptcy auction, and that affects any kind of UQM sequel.

Like if I were to start inserting SCO ships or aliens into the MegaMod, then Brad would have words to say to me.

But see, some of the SCO ships and races probably coincide with some of the UQM ships and races. Stardock supposedly claims they own the rights to everything UQM when they bought content at Atari's bankruptcy auction, and that affects any kind of UQM sequel.

Like if I were to start inserting SCO ships or aliens into the MegaMod, then Brad would have words to say to me.

But see, some of the SCO ships and races probably coincide with some of the UQM ships and races. Stardock supposedly claims they own the rights to everything UQM when they bought content at Atari's bankruptcy auction, and that affects any kind of UQM sequel.

You'd have to tell us exactly what you're planning to do in regards to alien art, ships, music, voices, etc.If any of it relates back to UQM then you have to slap the appropriate license.

If you want to make money off of it then you'd have to license whatever you need directly from the original owners or license holders.For the music it would be the individual artists. (Riku Nuottajärvi, Dan Nicholson, Eric Berge, etc, etc.)The artwork is now under assignment to P&F as of AprilThe 3DO assets ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've done some considerable footwork to find out who controls the SC2 3DO assets and have not received a single response from any of the individuals involved.

Paul definitely owns most of the voices since he and his family voiced a good chunk of them, as did Erol Otus and Greg Johnson. It might be another case of the individual owning their specific part or, like the art, is under assignment to P&F.

And as you've said, you wouldn't be using any of the old code so you wouldn't have to worry about the GPL2 license at all.

Making a fan-sequel to UQM shouldn't need any licenses involved from Stardock unless you plan to use their licenses.

Safest way to go about it is if you have a UQM alien in your fan sequel, say, a Supox. Just slap the Creative Commons license in a text file and keep it with the game.

Sorry, this slipped through the cracks in the rest of the excitement.

While this might be true, I would definitely check with a lawyer before relying on it. If your mod is useless without Stardock's commercial product, there's a plausible argument that it is driving sales of SC:O, and therefore serves a commercial purpose, which would be disallowed under the non-commercial requirements of the CC-NC license.

Now, if P&F wanted to be vindictive they could say that they'll allow mods like Seven Deadly Sins but won't allow a UQM reboot in SCO.

If I was in your position, I would ask P&F how they felt about it, and respect their decision. I would give them that courtesy because they certainly could have chosen to use a more restrictive license, or to not open-source the game at all. But they did, and that's why we're all here. Obviously, you also have the option of deciding that you don't care what they think, and then seeing if they object enough to try to force the issue. But if it were me, I just wouldn't feel right doing that.

When it comes down to the moment I'll ask, but that's months from now and just a theoretical.Depending on which directions certain things go with the MegaMod by that time I may reboot SC3 in SCO.(Which depends on the SC3 source being released at a reasonable time as well.)

Depending on which directions certain things go with the MegaMod by that time I may reboot SC3 in SCO. (Which depends on the SC3 source being released at a reasonable time as well.)

Well, from my (still not-a-lawyer) read of Addendum 2 of the 1988 agreement, both Stardock and P&F will have to agree to the terms of that open-sourcing. I expect that P&F would have no objection to it in principle (they proposed doing so in their settlement agreement), but they might have concerns if it seems like it could lead to the SC2 races or ships showing up in SC:O. Stardock could certainly authorize bringing all of the SC3-unique elements to SC:O, though.